Embodiments relate to a warhead and, more particularly, to a fragmentable package within a warhead that has individual interconnected fragments having a pattern with a plurality of voids defining the pattern.
The primary lethal mechanism of a fragmented warhead is the kinetic energy of the shattered casing fragments or pre-formed “frag pack” fragments rather than the heat or overpressure, or blast overpressure, caused by the detonation. An existing problem associated with typical preformed fragment warheads is that the mass of the fragments does not contribute to structure stiffness and strength. More specifically, the mass of the preformed fragment warhead is usually parasitic and does not contribute to airframe performance over the life of a. delivery device, such as, but not limited to, a missile, a rocket, a drone, etc. Additionally, preformed fragmentable packages within the warhead may also be susceptible to vibration and shock environments and have a lot of mass with a lower natural frequency.
Currently, an ability to produce varied fragmentable designs has been limited due to manufacturing technologies. Traditional manufacturing has been labor and process intensive since fragmentable packages are usually hand packed whereas other applications involve casting fragmentable packages in a binder, which may result in less density of the individual fragments and thus less efficient warheads.
Manufacturers and users of fragmented warheads would benefit from warheads with fragmentable packages which contribute to structural stiffness and strength of the warhead where the fragmented warhead is lightweight, when compared to prior warheads, and are not fully parasitic during a lifetime of the warhead and its delivery system.